Friday, 25 July 2014

Brajesh's Review : How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big

Every corporate slave is secretly in love with Dilbert, and I am no different. When I saw Scott Adam’s autobiographical advice book, given my recent delight with a similar book by Stephen King, I snapped this one up.

"How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big" is conveniently divided into 38 small chapters and starts smartly.

Scott’s personal battle with speech dystonia gives it the feel of a thriller. Unfortunately the book does not keep its pace and loses the reader in the second half.

Some of the advice is truly amazing and connected with me big time. I will list them here in the order that they appear in the book. Reading the list, you will realize how powerful and revolutionary these thoughts are.“Passion is Bullshit” “Have a System not a Goal” “Decide, Don’t just Want” “Be Selfish 1st – Selfless 2nd” “Manage Odds for Success” “Humor – Diet – Fitness – Luck”.

The part which totally put me off was the “Affirmation Piece” I have never been a fan of Rhonda Byrne's “The Secret” and finding it embedded strongly towards the latter half of the book was quite disappointing.

The biggest take-away for me, was the happiness formula of Scott which goes something like “Happiness = Eat Right + Exercise + Sleep Well + Imagine a Great Future + Flexible Schedule + Progressive Improvement in Tasks + Help Others + Reduce Daily Tasks to Routine”.

I also loved his 6 Filters for Truth in the form of “Personal & Others Experience, Experts, Scientific Studies, Common Sense, Pattern Recognition” and the advice that unless a situation passes more then 2-3 filters simultaneously, one should always be wary of it.

I will round-off this review with the list of skills, which as per Scott Adams, increase the probability of individual success, and like the book I only agree with the first 7 in this list :-
1. Public Speaking
2. Psychology
3. Business Writing
4. Accounting
5. Design
6. Conversation
7. Second Language
8. Overcoming Shyness
9. Golf
10.Proper Grammar
11. Persuasion
12. Technology
13. Voice Technique.